Sunday's letters: Famous and beloved icon

Sunday

Sep 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

I worked at the Geer Drug Co. that was located on West Main Street while I attended Dorman High School and Wofford College. During those years, I ate lunch at The Beacon at least three days a week. I would always sit in the front dining room so I could watch J.C. Stroble do his thing.

I worked at the Geer Drug Co. that was located on West Main Street while I attended Dorman High School and Wofford College. During those years, I ate lunch at The Beacon at least three days a week. I would always sit in the front dining room so I could watch J.C. Stroble do his thing.How did a man who was a fast-food worker become a famous and beloved icon?“If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.J.C. Stroble took this to an entirely different level. Embrace what you do, work hard, and be good at it. Well done a-plenty, J.C.!Del AllenMount Pleasant

The spotlight the past week has been on the late Martin Luther King Jr., the memory of the March on Washington, and Dr. King's famous “I have a dream” speech. Would he approve of the turn his dream has taken in the country today?Dr. King was a pacifist. He wanted a peaceful transition for his people, and he knew it would take time and struggle. The equality he wanted at that time was to sit anywhere he wanted on a bus, be treated with equal respect in any restaurant, drink from any public water fountain, get a decent education anywhere he chose, and get and keep a good job.He wanted equality, not superiority. He wasn't after competition; he was after fairness and justice.I ask my black friends who are saying Dr. King's dream has not yet been fulfilled: How do they discount all the black mayors, senators, professors and scientists? Add the millionaire sports figures and entertainers. And don't forget the brilliant physician, Dr. Benjamin Carson. And the list goes on.What more will they demand, or hope to achieve, other than the same things all of us want — a chance to better ourselves? There are just as many whites bemoaning their lot in life, suffering social injustices and feeling that they've been pushed aside in this never-ending racial rivalry.Some blacks refuse to see that they are being used as steppingstones to power by greedy opportunists looking out for their own interests. Where would Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson be without racism? Poorer.We are all a part of the human race, albeit from different ethnic backgrounds. No person living today is responsible for slavery, nor can we change history. So let's take it from here!Vivian BradburnUnion

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